In the first instance, 1965 to 1969 saw the birth of the album as an art form of some substance, whereas before LPs were neither intended nor regarded to be of enduring appeal. Now, more and more performers were committing due care and attention in the pursuit of a long player which would attract positive reviews from critics and stand the test of time. Furthermore, whereas before musicians regarded themselves or were indeed viewed as merely entertainers, they now saw themselves and wished to be projected as artists and not just performers. They now felt that they had something meaningful to say and thus felt the need to commit their observations onto record as they made their very own ‘state of the nation’ musical statements. As well as stepping away from a previous stance of being apolitical or apathetic, the new generation of performers or artists regarded themselves as spokespersons for the youth and the standardbearers of the developing subculture in which adolescents and teenagers campaigned for the need to ‘make love, not war’. All of this was anathema of course to the older generation and in hindsight it all smacked of gross naivety, the youthful feeling that they could conquer a world of cynicism with their very own ideals of peace and love.
However, two major problems arose. First of all, when the forces of the Establishment feel threatened, they soon regroup and channel their energies to snuff out the potential insurrection. There have been many successful revolutions in world history, but what is rarely recorded is the fact there have been a great deal more that failed and were often mercilessly curtailed at their outset. Therefore, “if history has taught us anything” (to quote Michael Corleone) it is that the odds of confronting the established order and winning are rather slim, in spite of the spectaculars of 1776, 1789, or 1917. Therefore, it is easy with hindsight to see how the burgeoning youth subculture of the late sixties was doomed to failure. Was it a complete failure? No, there were many liberal social reforms such as equality for women and protecting the rights of minorities which eventually found their way into law. However, although a new generation of politicians such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair owed their formative years to the influence of the sixties’ youth revolution, this same era still spawned a conservative reaction which culminated in the election and re-election of Nixon and Reagan in the USA and Mrs Thatcher in Britain. If the agents of change in the latter part of the ‘sixties were urging reform, well the electorate in their respective countries clearly had other ideas.
Also ominous to the successful prosecution of the hippie campaign for love and peace was the substantial amounts of illegal and dangerous substances which many of the protagonists experimented with. It is true that the great artists of this era owed some of their creativity to the stimulus of LSD and of marijuana, but such was the implosion of the flower power generation at the ill-fated Altamont festival in December 1969 that the naive optimism of Woodstock four months earlier was already but a pipedream. If you want to challenge the Establishment, it is best to do so with a clear head, and minds that were afflicted with all manner of substances was clearly not the way to do it.
Meanwhile back on planet pop, another transformation was taking place, alongside the emergence of the album as an art form. Now, the artists were promoting their new genre, known as rock, by means of relentless touring and festival appearances. Yes, the epoch from 1965 to the end of the decade witnessed the rise of the great outdoor festival as a new social gathering in which thousands would come into the sun (in theory) to pay homage to their new heroes. Speaking of heroes, this was the period which also gave birth to the guitar hero. No longer was a guitarist a smiling accomplice who lurked innocently in the background. Now guitarists were often viewed at least on a par with the lead vocalist. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, and Keith Richards were seven such axemen who were held in the kind of esteem that was previously reserved for singers only. Even drummers were not to be left behind. Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, and later John Bonham were celebrated drummers whose presence and histrionics on stage by itself would warrant sell-out crowds. This was clearly the age of the musician, as well as the era of the album. Rock music was clearly on a journey far from its origins. It would have been inconceivable a decade earlier that the crooners, balladeers, and skiffle merchants were igniting the runaway train of rock. Rock itself would branch out in due course into heavy metal, punk, and grunge. Other forms of music appeared for the first time during the metamorphosis in popular music of 1965 to 1969, most notably Britain’s importation of Jamaican ska and rock steady which between them paved the way for the growth of reggae in the 1970s.
Were the years from 1965 to the end of the decade a pop revolution? You bet your life, they were. Even artists and their streetwise managers belatedly started to flex their muscles after having had rings run around them by record companies and concert promoters. Rock musicians were slowly starting to wake up to the fact that music was a dog eat dog business and henceforth they were resolved to assert themselves in recording contracts too.
Robin Williams once quipped that “If you remember the ‘sixties, you weren’t there”. This assembly of facts, assessment, and assorted observations is both intended as a companion for those who were there and those who weren’t.
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